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WOMAN 


AS GOD MADE HER, 

IN THE 

I^MPEiRANCjEi F^REORM, 


HER 


PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STATUS. 

BY 

MRS. M. A. CATOR. 




9 


COPYRIGHTED MARCH 20, 1884. 



14 1884 , ) 

iPjJ 


CAMDEN, N. J.: 

S. CHEW, PRINTER, FRONT AND MARKET STS. 

1884. 


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or Wsmt 4 "' 



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PKEFAGH). 


In order to refute the assertion that man is superior to 
woman, and capable of accomplising more good in moral re¬ 
forms, and especially in this one, Intemperance, we propose to 
untie this knotty question of man’s superiority, showing he was 
not so created or endowed by his Maker; consequently his po¬ 
sition is a false one. 

We shall then speak of the embodiment of intemperance— 
what woman has done, and is doing, in the temperance reform, 
notwithstanding the impediments man has thrown in her way; 
what she is capable of doing, and will do, when invested with 
her rightful power—the elective franchise. 

We shall then lift the curtain, that all may have a view of the 
whirlpool of vice into which man’s single-handed legislation has 
drawn us, and shall endeavor to give it a thorough investigation. 

And, lastly, the closing^scene in this great drama of drunken¬ 
ness, brought about by woman’s refining and purifying influence, 
when invested with her God given rights. 

Woman’s equality with man, long since buried in the mythol- 
ogy of past ages, is now emerging from its dark tomb. The 
resurrection morn to her soul is breaking, and soon, through 
the leadings of God’s holy spirit, in newness of life, clothed with 
power, she will stand forth rejoicing in her own strength. 

And now to this question, “ Woman’s inequality to man,” or 
in other words, man’s superiority to woman, we would respect¬ 
fully ask your undivided attention. 



WOMAN; 


IN THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


Scott says of Queen Caroline, “that she is content with an 
influence, which is none the less potent because it is unseen.” 
We suppose he meant by this, that Queen Caroline was content 
with an influence which men allowed her to exert behind her 
throne. 

And this is what a vast number of men, at this enlightened 
age, would like women to be content with—a power exerted 
unseen and unfelt, only so far as that power would assist 
in raising men to eminence. But instead of woman’s exerting 
her powers unseen and behind the throne, she should be 
standing shoulder to shoulder with man, with him ascending 
the hill of science, climbing to the highest pinnacle of 
fame, and from this point of eminence, should be allowed to 
exert her powers openly, frankly and freely for the universal 
good and benefit of mankind. 

Now, for proof of the truth of these premises, let us turn to 
the sacred word. Here we read, “God created man in His own 
image. Male and female created he them.” Mark you, “Male 
and female created He them.” A unit, composed of the inte¬ 
gral parts of man and woman—making the one complete man, 
which God created in his own image—“Male and female 
created He them.” The spiritual parts of these two beings 
are indissolubly united; separate them and you have only one- 
half of the image of God, standing separately and alone—a 
deformed being, such as man has ever been since our first 
parents ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. 

And why deformed? Because up to this time the integral 
parts of woman, which is the better part of the one man 
created by God, have only existed in the world by sufferance, 
and this is why man has run into such excesses of riot and 
drunkenness. His purer and more virtuous part, which is 



4 


WOMAN; IN THE 


woman, has been held in obedience to his unbridled passions 
and appetites. As to the development of these passions and 
appetites we freely admit that man has excelled woman to a 
very great extent. 

After God had created Adam, He saw it was not good that 
man should be alone, and He said I will make a help-meet 
for him. (The correct rendering of this passage is, a help like 
unto himself.) This after thought in God, showed that the 
man was not complete, and that the woman was to be created in 
order to burnish and finish him up, making of him the one 
complete man created in God’s own image. 

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, 
and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the 
flesh instead thereof. The word does not say from which side 
God took the rib, therefore we have a right to conjecture it was 
taken from the left side, the rib lying nearest Adam’s heart, and 
from this rib He made woman. He could have made her out of 
anything else, just as well, so far as his creative powers were 
concerned. But God had an object in view when he made 
woman out of man’s rib, and no doubt it was this: He would 
so make her that it would be utterly impossible for man ever to 
deny that woman, in her physical nature, was bone of his bone, 
and flesh of his flesh. Let him deny whatever else he may of 
her equality with him, he can never deny this, for she is bone of 
his bone, and she is flesh of his flesh. The difference consisting 
only in this: Man was made out of the crude material—dust. 
Woman out o'f the same constituent element, after having been 
subjected to a refining process, sufficient to make of it organic 
matter. Then out of this organized matter (bone) woman was 
created. Here we have a key to her finer physical nature. Now 
in order to have perfect harmony existing between her physical 
and spiritual natures, her spiritual parts must have been refined 
just in proportion as has been her physical parts; otherwise she 
could not be the self-poised, well-balanced, true woman ; and 
thus, when permitted to stand on an equality with man, in her 
integrity of heart, her purity of life and character, she must be 
accepted by him as his equal. When united we have in these 
two beings, as already shown (both having been made of the 
same constituent element), the one man created in God’s own 
image. “ Male and female created He them.” 


TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


5 


Let us now consider for a few moments the curse pronounced 
by God upon our first parents for their transgression. This 
bears directly upon the point in question—man’s superiority to 
woman. And God said to Eve, “ I will greatly multiply thy 
sorrow, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall 
rule over thee.” And to Adam he said, “cursed is the ground 
for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy 
life. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou 
return to the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust 
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Those who know 
anything of the agonizing throes of nature in consequence of 
woman’s taking her true position in life, which is a maternal 
one, know something of how meekly she has bowed her neck 
and submitted to her yoke. The teeming millions of earth’s 
sons and daughters, who are now running to and fro upon 
the face of the earth, like the surging waters of the great deep, 
answer as to how faithfully and well the duties involved in her 
curse have been performed. “Thy desire shall be to thy 
husband, and he shall rule over thee.” 

This was spoken by God to woman, as a prophecy, and not 
as a command. For instance, the curse that was pronounced by 
God upon the serpent. “Her seed,” woman’s seed, “shall 
bruise thy head.” Mark the language—“shall bruise thy 
head ’ ’—prophesying of Christ, foretelling his coming. As we 
have said, this was spoken by God to woman as a prophecy and 
not as a command; knowing, as He then did, the evil which ex¬ 
isted in the human heart, and that its natural tendency would be 
to rule, and man being the stronger physical part of the one man 
created in God’s own image, would naturally tyrannize over the 
weaker physical part which is woman; as if God had said: the 
evil which is in man will work itself out, and this shall be one 
of its results—he shall rule over thee. 

For proof of this we have only to refer you to the uncivilized 
portions of mankind. The more ignorant and barbarous the 
nation, the more cruel and tyrannical the men to their wives 
and daughters. 

In most Pagan countries women are treated as slaves, and in 
many instances worse than this ; they are made beasts of burden 
for man’s comfort and convenience. Just in proportion as we 
advance in Christian civilization, just in that proportion does wo- 


6 


WOMAN; IN THE 


man come from under the tyrannical rule of man. God said to 
Adam, “ In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread.” Noth¬ 
ing of the kind was said to woman, not even hinted at by God, 
but we see since man assumed his power to rule she has not only 
borne her own curse heroically and well, (as we have already 
shown) but has been compelled to bear the heavier part of man’s. 

Her poor frame in consequence of her weaker physical nature, 
has been coerced and jaded on until her brow has sweat more 
drops than has ever fallen from man’s stalwart form. Women in 
the rural districts, and also those in ordinary circumstances in 
life, both in city and village, standing at the head of their house¬ 
holds, are the hardest worked members of society, while others 
belonging to the family, comparatively speaking, live lives of 
leisure. Man has ever been taught self reliance. Woman, in 
juxaposition, dependence; man, the lawgiver, woman the sub¬ 
ject ; man, the privileged character; woman, the restricted one. 
These two deformed beings have gone to the hymenial altar, and 
have been joined in holy wedlock, and thus has our race been 
propagated, the female portion taking the place assigned them 
by man ; the male portion the place which man in his self-com¬ 
placent spirit has assumed, when both should have been self 
reliant, both lawgivers, both privileged characters, at least so 
far as doing good to our fellow beings, which privilege is not 
always granted woman, especially when man carries the purse, 
although the contents of that purse may be the direct fruit of 
her own labor. In country life this is emphatically true in a 
majority of instances, and more especially so in grazing districts. 

Because of woman’s avowed determination to probe these 
festering wounds existing in society to their very bottom, comes 
up the cry from nether depths: fanaticism, spiritualism, &c., 
and good men have joined in that cry, not knowing from 
whence it came. Satan is alarmed, and well he may be, for the 
bombshells of truth and justice are flying thick and fast from 
woman’s hand into his well-guarded camp, and soon we will 
have it all ablaze, routing the arch fiend and putting him to 
flight, together with all his hosts. 

Let us now take a view of intemperance, and catch a glimpse 
of its motive power. All are aware that this is the greatest 
enemy with which the human family have now to contend, and 
as we behold him in his more than gigantic proportions, ill- 


TEMPERANCE REEORM. 


7 


formed and defective in every part, we feel that language would 
utterly fail us should we attempt to portray accurately his wicked 
and ungainly visage, for we have embodied in this one evil 
nothing short of his Satanic majesty—the living, acting, spirit; 
the motive power. A formidable enemy indeed, but let not this 
alarm or discourage you, for it is written, 11 No one goeth a war¬ 
fare at any time at his own charges.” Our Captain, who leads 
and protects us in this great conflict, is mightier than all the 
powers of darkness combined, and he has honored us by putting 
into our hands this great and good work. Now it remains for 
us to marshal our hosts and equip them for battle. The line of 
demarkation is already drawn. Upon the left stands the liquor 
dealer, the rum drinker, the wine tippler, and all of their 
attendant vices. Upon the right the men and women of stern 
principle and integrity, who will not swerve to the right or the 
left, but will unflinchingly stand and make battle with this great 
enemy, Intemperance. 

The most effectual power which we have at our command 
must be brought into requisition and made to bear uponfhes 
liquor traffic. Men have worked single-handed and alone for 
the last fifty years or more, legislating and making laws to re¬ 
strict and overcome this monstrous evil. But where and how 
do we stand as a nation this day upon this vital question ? Let 
the liquor fumes and the oaths that are now coming up from the 
dark dens of these earthly hells in high places answer, where ? 
Let the groans and the cries of the widow and the orphan, in 
their dire need, whose husband and father has fallen a victim to 
strong drink answer, where ? Let the poor wife who is this day 
toiling as never a slave at the south toiled, to feed arid clothe 
otherwise naked and starving children and besotted husband, 
and who stands in constant dread lest this fiend in human form 
should be tempted to take her life, and that of her little ones— 
call her, for verily she is within hearing—and let her answer, 
where? Interrogate her still farther. Ask her what heed has 
been paid to her piteous complaints; what laws have been put 
in force in answer to her pleadings ? For many a time has she 
stood before the bar of man pleading, praying for protection 
for herself and little ones against this terrible evil. Let her pa¬ 
thetic appeals, together with the help which she has received, 
give answer as to how and where we stand as a nation this day 


8 


WOMAN; IN THE 


upon the liquor traffic. As we have said, the most effectual 
power which we have at our command must be brought into 
requisition, and be made to bear upon this monstrous evil. 

Woman has been, and is to this day, the principal sufferer. 
.Her voice and influence should be heard and felt above all 
others, for she has shown, by her great forbearance, her almost 
superhuman endurance, that she is equal to any and every 
emergency. The very nature of the case teaches us that woman, 
through suffering, has been disciplined and fitted for this great 
work. Having been endowed by her Maker with keen per¬ 
ceptive faculties, with an intuition that at once perceives the 
right without reasoning, then add to this her tender, sympa¬ 
thetic heart, her affectionate disposition, that causes her to cling 
with such undying tenacity to the object upon which she first 
sets her young heart’s love, holding on when it seems that the 
last ray of hope is gone, pleading and praying for his redemp¬ 
tion, and not until the last breath is drawn, and his death-knell 
sounds upon her ear, does she relinquish her hold. 

We see, from woman’s natural endowments, that she is 
permanently fitted to labor in the Temperance Reform. 

By the position which God and nature has assigned her, as 
guardian of the youth, she has it in her power to instill within 
these tender minds right principles, and to mould and fashion 
them at will. There is not a Christian mother in all the land, 
but feels the responsibility of training the immortal spirits com¬ 
mitted to her care, as man never felt, nor never can feel. 
Woman being of a susceptible nature, and being the better 
part of the one man created by God, she is more closely allied 
to the Saviour; consequently draws continual and fresh supplies 
from Him, which fit her to battle efficiently with every form of 
vice, and especially with this one, Intemperance, for nothing 
short of divine power can meet and cope with this Prince of 
Darkness. This, woman has through the gift of God’s Holy 
Spirit in greater measure by far than man, for how often we 
hear her tell how God has arrested and saved the poor inebriate 
in answer to her prayer. 

“ The gravest responsibilities of social life must ever rest upon 
the mother of the race. Therefore, law, religion, public senti¬ 
ment, should unitedly declare her free,” and untrammeled, that 
she may be permitted to exercise all of her God given faculties 


TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


9 


for the good of mankind. But neither law, religion nor public 
sentiment, as now taught and enforced, do so declare her, for 
she is not, even at this late day of Christian civilization, allowed 
always to speak, and to act, according to the dictates of her own 
conscience upon this momentous subject, Intemperance. Wo¬ 
man, being thus held in bondage, God is being robbed of his 
most effectual instrumentality in carrying forward this great and 
good work, while humanity is suffering and crying aloud for 
help, and for that help which woman alone can give, but which 
will never be vouchsafed to man until woman has the free use of 
all her faculties, and is allowed to exercise them under the 
teachings and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. 

Once we were wont to look with compassion upon the poor 
slave woman, bowed down with burdens grievous to be borne, 
driven under the lash from early morn until late at 'night, with 
galling chains cutting into her very bone. This, indeed, was a 
sad spectacle, and no one would presume to say but that the 
poor victim felt the galling of the chain, the smarting of the 
lash, more keenly than the man who forged the chain, and the 
hand that dealt the blow. Woman has been, and is to this day, 
to a certain extent, held in bondage like unto that poor slave, 
only in a higher and more cruel sense, for the galling of the 
chain, cutting into flesh and bone, is not to be compared to the 
galling and the trammeling of the immortal spirit. 

For ages past woman has been writhing in the chains of sub¬ 
ordination forged by man. Almost every door to eminence, 
fame, and high scholarship has been closed against her. Since 
the founding of our colleges, until within the last few years, 
she might have gone at any time to any one of their doors, with 
a purse well filled with shining gold, with a head well balanced, 
resting upon a strong and a vigorous frame, with a life so pure 
the record of which could not show a blot, and knocked and 
knocked for admittance, when she would have received the cool 
but stern answer, we do not admit lady students here. And 
now we would ask, in the name of humanity’s God, what right 
has any portion of the human family to set up such arrogant 
claims, excluding others from participation, when all are en¬ 
dowed with the same reasoning faculties, the same mental 
powers, the same hungerings and thirstings after knowledge, 
and the same accountability to their Maker as to how they 


o 


WOMAN; IN THE 


spend their time, and the use they make of the talents which 
God has given them. They have no right except that which 
is assumed through arrogance, and mortal man never put him¬ 
self in a more perilous position in life than in the way of 
progressive truth, reaching out his puny hand to clog its wheels 
and impede its progress, for soon the sword of justice will be 
unsheathed and drawn to strike the blow, and all such will feel 
its power. Man has ever considered it as one of his prerogatives 
to control the education of woman, and in matters of law he 
sits to condemn or acquit her in our courts of justice, as the 
case may be, and when she is found guilty, she is made to 
suffer the full penalty of the law which she has had no voice 
in making, and yet we read in our statute books, that the 
power which governs is invested in the hands of the people 
governed, and this is the organic law of the nation, upon 
which is based all of our laws, and out of which has grown 
this republican form of government. How can man, in 
direct opposition to this organic law, withhold from woman 
longer her right to the elective franchise, and expect to be 
acquitted from acts of injustice, when he stands before the 
tribunal bar of a just and a holy God ? 

But, to woman’s education. Our colleges are not all open to 
woman. Our girls are not permitted to receive a classical 
education by the side of our boys in some of the oldest and most 
noted of them, and to thus drink deeply from these great 
fountains of knowledge. But, thanks be to a just God, we are 
making rapid progress in this direction, and trust that the day is 
not far distant when men will everywhere come to realize and 
to know, that the greatest and best good of the nation can be 
obtained only in and through the higher education of woman, 
the mother of the race. If this be true, ought that class of men 
who frown upon the highest and noblest of all endeavors in 
woman, the acquisition of knowledge, be regarded as the highest 
type of manhood ? Ought they to be looked upon as the God- 
given protectors of woman—her superior, her guardian? It is 
but a few short years since, when, after a persistent effort, a few 
ladies had succeeded in gaining admission to one of our medi¬ 
cal colleges, they were so insulted by the male students that 
they were obliged to leave, and were followed by these same men 
into the street, as they fled for refuge to their respective homes. 


TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


ii 


Again we say, thanks be to a just God, that day has past, 
and poor, frail, weak, woman, has paid the penalty. She has 
borne and suffered patiently that right might prevail, and to-day 
we find her at the bed-side of the sick and suffering, the long 
and much needed friend of woman in the capacity of a physi¬ 
cian, giving comfort and help to her sisters in their greatest 
need. In the years gone by, anything above a common educa¬ 
tion for woman has been considered wholly superfluous by most 
men. In ordinary households it has been next to impossible for 
her to get sufficient knowledge to fit her for any capacity in life 
save that of a drudge in the kitchen, or a maid in the nursery. 

Do not understand by this that labor necessary to be per¬ 
formed in every household is considered degrading. No, far 
otherwise; but that mind, intellect, and understanding, which 
are encased in all of these bodily forms, should be nurtured, ex¬ 
panded, and enlightened, in keeping with the strengthening of 
the muscle, the hardening of the bone and the sinew, the ex¬ 
pansion of the frame, so that when woman reaches her full phy¬ 
sical stature, she will not have a pigmy of a soul encased within, 
but one so large, so noble, so wise and pure, that everything 
which her hand in the capacity of labor touches will be made 
honorable, and will be exalted by reason of that touch. 
Woman’s greatest need at the present time is, that new avenues 
be opened to her, and that she be paid for her labor, according 
to her ability to perform, equal with man. Although within the 
last forty years, from seven occupations there have been opened 
to her two hundred and eighty-seven which she can lawfully en¬ 
gage in, yet these do not meet the demand for her present and 
future usefulness, so that the increase of knowledge, which she has 
been permitted to obtain in our schools and otherwise, may not 
fall into disuse as heretofore, and thus become latent power, but 
that it may be brought into active service, and she become 
strong and vigorous in the use of all her faculties. 

Woman has ever been required to make the brick, while man 
has stood in every avenue to prevent her approach to the mate¬ 
rial with which to make the brick; but notwithstanding these 
many hindrances, woman has made the brick—not the brick to 
be put in the drunkard’s cap, but the brick of granite, to be 
placed as a foundation stone whereon to rest this American Re¬ 
public, and on it inscribed, as we firmly believe, “Woman’s 


12 


WOMAN; IN THE 


Enfranchisement.” Man never tires of extolling the excellencies 
of the female character. He says, “ no man was ever blessed with 
a nobler mother. Her Christian example and pure life has ever 
been a constant restraint upon my otherwise unbridled passions. 
In fact, she was almost a saint.” And then of his wife— 4 ‘she 
is one of the most amiable and unselfish of mortals. With 
such patience and untiring devotion, such careful watching and 
painstaking lest anything unpleasant should occur to sour my 
feelings;” and then my daughter—“she is so loving and obedi¬ 
ent, she actually anticipates my every want; her face is all 
aglow with smiles if she sees that in any way she can render me 
assistance.” Then, straightening himself up amidst these beau¬ 
tiful surroundings, almost angelic, exclaims, “Can I, will I, ever 
give my consent that these beautiful women of mine should 
come in contact with the coarse and vulgar men of the world 
by going down into that dirty, filthy pool of politics? No, 
never ! For one I will throw my strong arms about them, and 
shield them from all such evil influences.” We would simply 
ask just here, and a very pertinent question it is, who made that 
dirty, filthy pool of politics ? Did man ? My friend, it is 
because your mother is so pure and angelic, your wife so ami¬ 
able and unselfish, your daughter so loving and obedient, that 
we want them to go down into that dirty, filthy pool of politics, 
and by the grace of God to purify it, and make it a fountain 
of living waters, that shall send forth crystal streams in such 
copious effusions, that the whole land will be inundated. 

It is man’s utter failure, in legislating upon this vital question, 
that has wrung from the throbbing heart of woman the cry, “ Give 
us the ballot,” “the only remedy for present wrongs, and the only 
guarantee for future rights.” We come as American citizens, as 
wives and mothers, asking only our God given place by the side 
of man, as a help like unto himself, in this great emer¬ 
gency—a nation struggling to regulate a monstrous evil, 
and we feel the only safe way is to annihilate it. Therefore 
we respectfully ask permission that we may help in this good 
work of annihilation, for it is now an acknowledged fact, 
that woman is the greatest factor known in the Temperance 
Reform, laboring as she does in the Gospel Temperance line ; 
she has shown her ability to do and to suffer for Christ’s sake, 
only that she may be able to win souls for Jesus, is her highest 


TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


13 


thought. 4 ‘If it is not woman’s privilege and province to wisely 
protect and legislate against an evil that is taking from her many 
of her dear ones, robbing her of all her home comforts, every¬ 
thing that serves to make life desirable, then she has no mission 
in this dark, sin-cursed world of ours.” Perhaps the time has 
come when man will be willing to admit that the woman of the 
present is not as the woman of the past; that as man has ad¬ 
vanced in knowledge, so has woman. “ The same road is 
being traveled by man’s feet as by woman’s. The same laws 
should be established for the one as for the other; for we know 
what man knows if he would please to admit it—that God is no 
respecter of persons; he loves alike the souls of man and the 
souls of women.” This is the spirit of the age in which we live. 
Would it not be wise for man to concede these terms to 
woman, that she may forthwith join him in this great work of 
reconstruction ? There are evils existing in society that require 
the combined forces of man and woman to overthrow. Will you 
not help to make her strong, a power to be felt for good through¬ 
out the whole world, after having oppressed her so long ? First re¬ 
nounce that long held opinion of woman’s subjugation; then 
throw down your bars, open wide your doors, unmanacle her 
hands, her limbs, and bid her go free. 

Then should you consider it unsafe for her to enter the dark 
places where men for so long a time have been wont to congre¬ 
gate alone, volunteer your services as her body guard, that her 
voice may be heard, her refining and purifying influence be felt, 
for woman’s natural sagacity and keen insight will soon penetrate 
to the now almost fathomless depths of these great evils, and 
will extricate their deep and dangerous roots. 

In the name of humanity, we say, call aloud for this great 
army of pure, noble, temperate women that now stand waiting, 
and let them enter upon this noble work of reconstruction. It 
is high time that her voice was heard and her influence felt in the 
dark dens of drunken debauchery and licentiousness, for as Pol¬ 
lock has it, not of one man but of many thousands can it be said : 

“ I saw them enter in, and heard the door 
Behind them shut, and in the dark still night 
When God’s unsleeping eye alone can see, 

He went to her adulterous bed. 

At morn I looked, and saw him not among the youth. 

I heard his father mourn, his mother weep, 

For none returned that went with her. 

The dead were in her house, her guests in depths of hell. 

She wove the winding sheet of souls, 

And laid them in the urn of everlasting death.” 


14 


WOMAN; IN THE 


Because of this great transgression, there are many otherwise 
bright and beautiful homes made dark and desolate, the light 
and the joy all gone out, and in smothered grief, for the love of the 
dear little ones, these impure beings are permitted to remain in 
these darkened homes, being clasped in the loving arms of woman, 
resting upon her pure and noble heart, to the truth of which 
thousands and tens of thousands of the pure but broken-hearted 
women of earth will testify. Therefore, we demand, in the 
name of a just and a holy God, that the same standard of 
purity shall be held up for man as for woman; that he shall be 
branded with the same brand that his companion in iniquity is 
branded, for in the sight of heaven the blackness of their crime 
is the same. God sees and makes no distinction of sex. Man 
not for a moment, in this, should consider himself the privi¬ 
leged class, but should be made to realize that every pure and 
virtuous woman spurns him as she does the viper coiled at her 
feet; and not until woman shall have set her face as a flint 
against the vices to which men are so addicted can we hope for 
a reform. Neither can we expect to have just legislation from 
men, so long as the majority of them are addicted to strong 
drink, and their ambition is to make woman their prey. But, 

When these dark and surging billows 
Are transformed to crystal waters, 

We ’ll no longer see our fellows 
Hanging by rum’s cruel halters, 

Dropping in the burning lake. 

But murder, theft and drunkenness 
That now go stalking through our land, 

Together with licentiousness, 

Shall be held and bound by an angel’s hand, 

And cast into the burning pit. 

Their names are written and defined, 

The old Dragon, Serpent, Satan, 

They no more shall deceive mankind, 

But are doomed and sealed as it is written, 

Low down in the bottomless pit. 

The sin consequent upon the liquor traffic will never rest 
upon the soul of woman. Not even the sin of omission, for 
she has had no hand in helping to frame the law that permits 
man to deal out to his brother man that which brings such mis¬ 
ery, woe and want into their once beautiful and happy homes, 
robbing them of the rights which are guaranteed to every Amer¬ 
ican citizen, which rights are incorporated in and laid down as 


TEMPERANCE REFORM . 


15 


one of the fundamental principles of our government, namely: 
All have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
No true happiness can be found in a drunkard’s home ; no 
liberty, but to suffer the will of the infuriated man, who was 
once the loving husband and tender father, but now crazed by 
strong drink. No life but that which is being blasted by the 
blightening curse of rum. The blood of the souls of these poor 
inebriates will be found in the skirts of man’s garment, and it 
will cry out against him in that great day of account. Ye knew 
your duty but ye did it not. 

That class of men who think they are doing so much for 
their country by way of revenue in casting their ballots for the 
license system, and they who deal out the intoxicating cup, may 
receive a greater punishment by far than their poor, weak er¬ 
ring brother. Better not have any revenue, better not have any 
government, if that government cannot protect its people from 
dire pestilence sweeping through the great body politic, and 
prostrating its social fabric. Call a business legitimate when 
the curse of a just God is resting upon it ? 

Every dollar that goes into the rumseller’s coffers has the curse 
of a just God resting upon it, and this curse still remains, let it 
go where it will, into church or State treasury. 

First of all we should haste to learn the worth of the im¬ 
mortal soul, as near as it is possible for finite minds to com¬ 
prehend, and understand it. With this great knowledge, 
we will be enabled to lay aside all preconceived opinions, as 
regards the instrumentalities to be used in saving the soul— 
the ways and the means are as nothing, not even the dust 
in the balance, when compared with the worth of the soul, 
saved or lost. Only that these precious ones, for whom Jesus 
died, be safely housed with him, is worthy of our thought. If 
Christian men and women everywhere were doing all they 
could for God and humanity, (and this is their bounden 
duty) they would have no time to be so wondrously exer¬ 
cised in regard to woman’s sphere and duty, but their chief 
concern would be to build so that the master builder might 
approve of their work—the embellishment of their immortal 
souls. Christians are just beginning to breathe the free air 
of the saints in light, while upon their banners are inscribed, 
“ Holiness unto the Lord.” Then from this great fountain 


16 WOMAN; IN THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 


of God’s eternal truth let us drink deep with a full deter¬ 
mination to know and to do nothing but his holy will, working 
and stimulating others to work in the Master’s vineyard, for 
when God plucks from his garden, he plucks the leek, the violet 
and the hawthorn. These unseemly plants and flowers, with 
their prickly thorns and offensive odors, are strewn all along 
life’s pathway, in the form of human beings ; let it be our life 
work to prune*and to train these for our Master’s service, that 
the day may speedily come when woman will be invested with 
her God-given rights, and thus will hold in her hands the bal¬ 
ance of power, and will be permitted to exercise it, to the entire 
overthrow and annihilation of this monstrous evil, the liquor 
traffic. 

I hear my risen Saviour now saying to me, “If I will that he 
tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” 

The path may seem rugged, the way may seem hard, 

The brambles may tear thee, thy flesh may be scarred; 

The cold blasts of winter, its hoar frosts and snow, 

May chill and may pierce thee while onward you go. 

The multitude may throng thee, to hear what thou’It say, 

The wicked may scoff, (but the righteous will pray,) 

They will taunt and revile thee, not fearing my word, 

With curses most bitter denying their Lord. 

These trials, though sore, press hard on thy way, 

Let none of them daunt thee, but work while ’tis day, 

For the night cometh on, prove faithful and true, 

The harvest is great but the lab’rers are few. 

My sheaves must be garnered, for fast ebbs the tide 
Of vice and intemperance, now ’n Christ all may hide; 

He’s the rock that was cleft to shelter from storm, 

Then haste to this covert, and bid others come. 

If you know of my power and sinners’ great need, 

Go sow by all waters this life-giving seed; 

For every one sown, that is watered with tears, 

Will yield a rich harvest in all coming years. 

The cross may seem heavy, but bear it for me ; 

Remember the anguish of Gethsemane, 

And sleep not for sorrow, but watch unto prayer, 

For lo! I’ll go with thee, and strengthen thee there. 

Then, when the great conflict with sin is all o’er, 

I bear thee up quickly to the bright shining shore— 

Will crown thee with glory and welcome thee in 
To the courts of high heaven, ne’er tarnished with sin. 





















































